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ir_sharp2's review against another edition
3.0
Meh. Kinda dry. Did the Playaway version. 16.5 hrs. NOTHING is interesting enough to listen to for 16.5 hrs...
labunnywtf's review against another edition
5.0
I was worried when I started this book that I was going to be bored. All of the GR reviews seemed really positive, so I had hope, but I just have bad lucks with biographies.
This book is pretty much AWESOME.
The backstory on the two families is just right. There's not long drawn out discussion about how the parents grew up and met. You get the gist of what they went through to get to the poverty they were at when Clyde and Bonnie were born, what their lives were like growing up, and how they met. This book is only a little under 400 pages long, and even then, a large chunk is dedicated to source notes (love those). This author managed to explain a hell of a lot in pretty much 350 pages, and I love him for it.
The research this author did is so in depth. He addresses what is "known" about B&C, and explains why he's sure it didn't happen that way, and what sources tell him what. Even before the insane source notes, he lets you know that he knows his stuff. And it's so refreshing. I would read a biography by him any day.
The ineptitude of Bonnie and Clyde is utterly bizarre. The only thing I knew of them when I was little was based on the Looney Tunes version of "Bunny and Clyde", which I loved (of course). I never watched the Faye Dunaway/Warren Beatty movie, but I did see a TV movie at some point. I remember practically nothing about it, but I'd always liked their story. This version blows anything I really knew about them (which was practically nothing) out of the water.
This is another one I enjoyed giving people facts out of, as well. That's always my favorite part of a book.
The pictures in the book are absolutely horrifying. I couldn't believe the picture of the shot-up car with Clyde still inside. They actually published that picture in a newspaper. And the bodies laid out, still bloody, with their eyes open? My god. According to the book, there was even a picture posted after their clothing was removed, to show off "Bonnie's dead breasts." WTF? Even more WTF, when crowds swarmed the car, they tried to take souvenirs. Such as Clyde's trigger finger, or ear. What is wrong with humans?
They were kids. My sympathy for them is so ridiculously strong. They were just kids in a bad situation. And they loved each other. So sad. So very sad.
This book is pretty much AWESOME.
The backstory on the two families is just right. There's not long drawn out discussion about how the parents grew up and met. You get the gist of what they went through to get to the poverty they were at when Clyde and Bonnie were born, what their lives were like growing up, and how they met. This book is only a little under 400 pages long, and even then, a large chunk is dedicated to source notes (love those). This author managed to explain a hell of a lot in pretty much 350 pages, and I love him for it.
The research this author did is so in depth. He addresses what is "known" about B&C, and explains why he's sure it didn't happen that way, and what sources tell him what. Even before the insane source notes, he lets you know that he knows his stuff. And it's so refreshing. I would read a biography by him any day.
The ineptitude of Bonnie and Clyde is utterly bizarre. The only thing I knew of them when I was little was based on the Looney Tunes version of "Bunny and Clyde", which I loved (of course). I never watched the Faye Dunaway/Warren Beatty movie, but I did see a TV movie at some point. I remember practically nothing about it, but I'd always liked their story. This version blows anything I really knew about them (which was practically nothing) out of the water.
This is another one I enjoyed giving people facts out of, as well. That's always my favorite part of a book.
The pictures in the book are absolutely horrifying. I couldn't believe the picture of the shot-up car with Clyde still inside. They actually published that picture in a newspaper. And the bodies laid out, still bloody, with their eyes open? My god. According to the book, there was even a picture posted after their clothing was removed, to show off "Bonnie's dead breasts." WTF? Even more WTF, when crowds swarmed the car, they tried to take souvenirs. Such as Clyde's trigger finger, or ear. What is wrong with humans?
They were kids. My sympathy for them is so ridiculously strong. They were just kids in a bad situation. And they loved each other. So sad. So very sad.
kayleem93's review against another edition
3.0
Gets a little bogged down in the minutiae around people who were only briefly involved.
Other than that a very informative book that give you the facts, hardly lyrical but the author clearly did his research and knows his stuff. Had the same trouble with his book on Manson he loves to delve into unimportant areas while leaving out any sort of feeling or style.
Other than that a very informative book that give you the facts, hardly lyrical but the author clearly did his research and knows his stuff. Had the same trouble with his book on Manson he loves to delve into unimportant areas while leaving out any sort of feeling or style.
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
A deep dive into the true story of Bonnie & Clyde.
This was an unglamorized version, which I appreciated. However, some parts felt too drawn out while others didn't have quite enough detail.
Narrator Rating: 2.5 stars
The narrator wasn't very good. He said some words oddly. He also sounded kind of odd at a higher speed. I listened at 1.8x speed.
Elemental Levels: Heartfelt-2/5 Helpful-2.5/5 Love aka Romance-1/5 Tear- 2/5 Humor-NA
This was an unglamorized version, which I appreciated. However, some parts felt too drawn out while others didn't have quite enough detail.
Narrator Rating: 2.5 stars
The narrator wasn't very good. He said some words oddly. He also sounded kind of odd at a higher speed. I listened at 1.8x speed.
Elemental Levels: Heartfelt-2/5 Helpful-2.5/5 Love aka Romance-1/5 Tear- 2/5 Humor-NA
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Gun violence, Murder, Misogyny, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore
Moderate: Car accident, Infertility, Kidnapping, and Police brutality
Minor: Drug abuse, Rape, Child death, Sexual assault, Addiction, and Infidelity
Not as gorey as some horror books, but some of the injury & fire injury detail was graphic.modern_analog's review against another edition
5.0
I couldn't put this book down. It's a researched historical account of the life and times of Clyde and Bonnie. It details what life was like for poor farmers during the dustbowl and the depression. Otherwise law abiding, God fearing citizens turned to theft or bootlegging just to feed their families and once the law was after you, a lack of civil rights meant they could detain you any time they wanted on grounds of 'suspicion,' making it hard to go straight and get a factory job.
Clyde started down this path and as he got himself in deeper he eventually saw no way out but to continue with life on the run. That's not to say he didn't do horrible things. He stole and kidnapped and killed to escape ambush, but he and Bonnie were far from the cold blooded gangsters presented in the media. They spent much of their crime spree camping in their car in the backwoods, eating tinned food with the money they stole from banks. This book doesn't worship or condemn them, but it helps explain their motivation for the actions that ultimately led to the couple's death.
Clyde started down this path and as he got himself in deeper he eventually saw no way out but to continue with life on the run. That's not to say he didn't do horrible things. He stole and kidnapped and killed to escape ambush, but he and Bonnie were far from the cold blooded gangsters presented in the media. They spent much of their crime spree camping in their car in the backwoods, eating tinned food with the money they stole from banks. This book doesn't worship or condemn them, but it helps explain their motivation for the actions that ultimately led to the couple's death.
bmpicc's review against another edition
3.0
This book was pretty incredible. It gave so much moment by moment information it was almost overwhelming. I will admit, it was cool learning where they came from and how they really met. I only know of them what I saw in the movie... I never realized the movie was largely fiction!
dryadgurrl's review against another edition
5.0
Sixteen seconds.
This is the time, by best accounts, between the first and final shots fired by the posse of lawmen at the Ford V-8 driven by Clyde Barrow with his partner Bonnie Parker in the passenger seat on the morning of May 23rd 1934.
We all know how the story ends, I knew going in how the story was going to end, but that small fact, that miniscule span of time still hit me like a punch to the chest. People have criticized Jeff Guinn for adding too many details to the book, making it more a history of the time than of the people, but that was one of the things I liked best about it. I think this is also part of the reason that the fact that the gunshots only lasted sixteen seconds hit me as hard as it did, because by the time I got to the end I felt like I was right there in the middle of it, and had been for the whole ride. To me it felt like I knew these people, Bonnie, Clyde, even the posse shooting at them, these were people I’d come to know, even respect.
Jeff Guinn takes two larger-than-life folk heroes and writes about them in a way that makes them very accessible and very, very human. They were just two young people who loved each other and loved their families and were doing their best to get by in a world that seemed intent on keeping them down.
Buck Barrow (Clyde’s brother) had a self-professed philosophy of life and that was: “A good run is better than a poor stand.” This seems to have been a lifelong theme with both Clyde and Bonnie, because wherever he went, she went along, she loved him and knew from the start that if he was going down, they’d go down together.
It’s the little details that Guinn adds that really make the book for me, things like the fact that during a shootout in Joplin, Missouri on April 13th 1933 Blanche Barrow (Buck Barrow’s wife) had a dog named Snow Ball that ran off during the skirmish, Guinn notes: “No one knows what became of the dog”
In the same vein, not long after, in Lucerne, Indiana May 11th the gang robbed a bank and during their escape, a local farmer ran a herd of pigs into the road in attempt to stop their car, Clyde just kept on driving, accelerating and plowing right through them. According to Guinn: “Two hogs were killed - the only fatalities in Lucerne that morning.” These little throwaway lines are two of my favorite, and there are many others, just gentle notations that transcend good biography-writing and move into just good storytelling.
There is much that is contested about Clyde and Bonnie both, such as whether or not Clyde wrote a letter to Henry Ford in 1934, praising him on his automobiles: “Even if my business hasen’t been strickly legal it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8” Even if this wasn’t penned by Clyde it seems to most the kind of thing he would have done, because it fit his sense of humor.
Bonnie, also, had a sense of humor, upon giving her mother Emma a rabbit named Sonny Boy, Bonnie reportedly said: “Keep him away from the cops, he’s been in two gun battles and he’ll land at Huntsville [a Texas penitentiary] if the law finds it out.”
These are the kind of things that I liked about Guinn’s writing, the things that helped me connect with Bonnie and Clyde in a way I never thought I would. I would recommend this book to fans of history, fans of Bonnie and Clyde lore, and people who just like a good story. I think we can all relate to the famous duo with the way they’re presented in Go Down Together.
Clyde’s epitaph, the one that graces the headstone shared with his brother Buck, as Guinn notes, says it best: “Gone but not forgotten.”
This is the time, by best accounts, between the first and final shots fired by the posse of lawmen at the Ford V-8 driven by Clyde Barrow with his partner Bonnie Parker in the passenger seat on the morning of May 23rd 1934.
We all know how the story ends, I knew going in how the story was going to end, but that small fact, that miniscule span of time still hit me like a punch to the chest. People have criticized Jeff Guinn for adding too many details to the book, making it more a history of the time than of the people, but that was one of the things I liked best about it. I think this is also part of the reason that the fact that the gunshots only lasted sixteen seconds hit me as hard as it did, because by the time I got to the end I felt like I was right there in the middle of it, and had been for the whole ride. To me it felt like I knew these people, Bonnie, Clyde, even the posse shooting at them, these were people I’d come to know, even respect.
Jeff Guinn takes two larger-than-life folk heroes and writes about them in a way that makes them very accessible and very, very human. They were just two young people who loved each other and loved their families and were doing their best to get by in a world that seemed intent on keeping them down.
Buck Barrow (Clyde’s brother) had a self-professed philosophy of life and that was: “A good run is better than a poor stand.” This seems to have been a lifelong theme with both Clyde and Bonnie, because wherever he went, she went along, she loved him and knew from the start that if he was going down, they’d go down together.
It’s the little details that Guinn adds that really make the book for me, things like the fact that during a shootout in Joplin, Missouri on April 13th 1933 Blanche Barrow (Buck Barrow’s wife) had a dog named Snow Ball that ran off during the skirmish, Guinn notes: “No one knows what became of the dog”
In the same vein, not long after, in Lucerne, Indiana May 11th the gang robbed a bank and during their escape, a local farmer ran a herd of pigs into the road in attempt to stop their car, Clyde just kept on driving, accelerating and plowing right through them. According to Guinn: “Two hogs were killed - the only fatalities in Lucerne that morning.” These little throwaway lines are two of my favorite, and there are many others, just gentle notations that transcend good biography-writing and move into just good storytelling.
There is much that is contested about Clyde and Bonnie both, such as whether or not Clyde wrote a letter to Henry Ford in 1934, praising him on his automobiles: “Even if my business hasen’t been strickly legal it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8” Even if this wasn’t penned by Clyde it seems to most the kind of thing he would have done, because it fit his sense of humor.
Bonnie, also, had a sense of humor, upon giving her mother Emma a rabbit named Sonny Boy, Bonnie reportedly said: “Keep him away from the cops, he’s been in two gun battles and he’ll land at Huntsville [a Texas penitentiary] if the law finds it out.”
These are the kind of things that I liked about Guinn’s writing, the things that helped me connect with Bonnie and Clyde in a way I never thought I would. I would recommend this book to fans of history, fans of Bonnie and Clyde lore, and people who just like a good story. I think we can all relate to the famous duo with the way they’re presented in Go Down Together.
Clyde’s epitaph, the one that graces the headstone shared with his brother Buck, as Guinn notes, says it best: “Gone but not forgotten.”